Is there anything that Hamas does not condemn (besides killing and maiming Israelis and political opponents)?

What is it about facial hair? Didn't Operation Mongoose have some plan to make El Barbudo lose his beard? I have a goatee, but I don't think I'd be totally unmanned and unable to rally my supporters (killers all) if someone made it fall out or shaved it. Pardon me for saying so, but this seems dumb. I must be ethnocentric. Something is escaping me.

If there ever was a sign of the primitive, arab macho culture that exists among these terrorist groups, this is one. What a bunch of maroons. "I will shave you!"

Of course Muslims want to keep their mustaches.  After all, Jesus shaves.

Not even The Onion could come up with a headline this ridiculous!

I hear that the Red Sox have something similar in store for Jason Giambi.

I seem to recall "a curse on your mustache" being a big insult in the Middle East (reported during the Iraq war -- I'm too lazy to google it) --  I understand the reflexive sense of amusement, but it's probably a big deal over there...  

Humanity's cultural quirks are an endless source of wonder to me.

I hear that, in some society's, elders including even family members make a ritual out of chopping off the end of infant boys' foreskins.

Is that crazy or what?

Think how humiliating it would be to have a fake mustache glued to your face.

Remember: the only polite time to spit in a man's face is when his mustache is on fire.

I guess that "Mustache Rides, 5 Cents" t-shirt goes to the bottom of the drawer.

jwl chimes in with his(her?) usual insight, intelligence, and fair-mindedness: "Muslims look ridiculous and nasty with that facial hair. I guess hygiene isn't a big thing in the koran."  I suppose this means that all the Christians and Jews who sport facial hair are also "nasty" and dirty, or un-"hygienic"?

williamyard: thank you.

"Of course Muslims want to keep their mustaches.  After all, Jesus shaves."

Does he still?

It's not just an Arab phenomenon.  I recall the one of the CIA's aborted plots against Castro was to find a way to make his beard fall out.  They reasoned that he would lose his charisma without it.  

Humanity has long tied personal appearance and clothing to its various tribal and political identities. I am reminded of Peter the Great forcing Russian nobles to shave their beard to westernize Russia in the early 1700s. Whether one wears a mustache or a full beard, a chador, a hijab or is bareheaded says a lot about their politics. Of course to many Americans they're all Arabs one and the same. Maybe we are a little less uptight about how and where we wear our mustaches here but we do have our own cultural uniforms there is no doubt. I remember being the only one in the crowd at a Social Distortion concert with kaki pants and a colored shirt on; of course I considered my self quite bad-ass for such a move.

A couple of months ago Slate magazine had an article comparing haircutting styles in the British and US military:

-- Prince Harry returned to London on Saturday, after a 10-week deployment to Afghanistan with the Household Cavalry of the British army. Photographs of the young royal showed him dressed in desert fatigues with a healthy mop of red hair—an unusual sight for Americans accustomed to military buzz cuts. Don't British soldiers have to cut their hair, too?

-- Only if their commander says so. Unlike American male recruits, for whom the buzz cut is part of the initiation into the service, the British Ministry of Defence leaves coiffure decisions up to individual regiment leaders. Most require new recruits to report with neatly groomed hair of modest length; they'll even go so far as to prohibit cuts shorter than about 1 centimeter. For example, the Army Training Regiment in Lichfield manual for recruits (PDF) mandates that "the closest permissible haircut is a No 3," a clipper that leaves about 3/8 of an inch of hair. It specifically prohibits "skinheads." Women are generally required to keep their hair in a net or bun, as they are in the United States.

-- The differing standards are representative of the British army's organization, which emphasizes loyalty to one's regiment in addition to the army as a whole. Unlike the U.S. commanders, whose "Army of one" approach emphasizes uniformity among service members, the Minister of Defence tolerates a little bit of panache.

www.slate.com/.../2185850

I've heard that a reasonable head of hair is a good protection against the sun if you are serving in, so to speak, hot countries.  Aren't we in a couple of them?  I heard something.

irony...so THAT'S why Americans are seen as hotheads.

On another thread, in a discussion about jwl's offensive comments, I argued in favor of shunning rather than censoring them. But I can't say I'm disappointed that, in this instance, the forum administrator removed jwl's repugnant post.